Opera on WRTI

Saturday, 1 to 5 pm

Saturday is always opera day at WRTI! We bring you top performances from some of the finest opera companies in the world, every week of the year!

In addition to the full season of opera from The Metropolitan Opera, you'll hear performances from the Academy of Vocal Arts, Lyric Opera of Chicago, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and more.

It was a Bible story, and then a French play by Oscar Wilde. Then it was translated into German, before Strauss turned it into his opera, Salome. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, a production from May, 2014 continued the evolution of this complex and compelling work of art.

On Sunday, November 2, 2014 at 1 pm on WRTI, listen to a recorded broadcast of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia performing Richard Strauss' Salome.

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8:14

Bass-baritone Alan Held talks with WRTI's Susan Lewis about his character, Jochanaan (John the Baptist).

Oscar Wilde’s late 19th-century play, retelling the biblical story of Salome, became the basis for Richard Strauss' one-act opera SALOME that premiered in Dresden in 1905. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, the opera continues to shock and dazzle, nearly a century later.

WRTI re-broadcasts The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia in a joint production of Salome, with Camilla Nylund in the title role, on Sunday, November 2 at 1 pm.

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8:47

Soprano Camilla Nylund talks with WRTI' s Susan Lewis about the character Salome, which has become one of her signature roles.

A Musical Theater Special

10:54 am

Mon October 20, 2014

The San Francisco Opera presents Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein III's SHOW BOAT on WRTI. A true classic of American musical theater, this tale of life on the Mississippi from the 1880s to the 1920s is both a poignant love story and a powerful reminder of the bitter legacy of racism.

The Metropolitan Opera in New York is bracing for one of the more controversial productions in its history. Since its first performance more than 20 years ago, some critics have charged that composer John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer is anti-Israel, and even anti-Semitic. But the opera's supporters dispute that. They argue that Klinghoffer is a dramatic masterpiece that deserves to make its Met debut on Monday.

Wed October 8, 2014

The San Francisco Opera presents a world premiere! Desperate. Passionate. Trapped. Dolores Claiborne is willing to do whatever it takes to save herself and her daughter—even if that means taking a life. One of the most compelling characters to emerge from the imagination of Stephen King, the feisty Maine housekeeper is a natural fit for opera—and specifically for the dark theatricality of American composer Tobias Picker.

Violetta Valéry may be the most heart-wrenching character in all of opera: a high-spirited but deceptively delicate woman who unexpectedly finds, and then selflessly gives up, the love of her all-too-short life in Giuseppe Verdi's LA TRAVIATA.Saturday, October 4, 1 to 4 pm on WRTI.

The Barber of Seville is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Opera-goers always kind of knew that. But in Opera Philadelphia's new production, the setting is being brought forward 200 years to modern Spain - where passion crosses the line into...who knows? The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns reports.

Presented in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss, San Francisco Opera’s 1976 production of Die Frau ohne Schatten - The Woman Without a Shadow - featuring soprano Leonie Rysanek and led by distinguished conductor and noted Strauss expert Karl Böhm, airs on Saturday, September 27, 1 to 4 pm on WRTI.